Abstract:
Assessing the stability of stopes is essen tial in open stope mine design as unstable hangingwalls
and footwalls lead to sloughing, unplanned stope
dilution, and safety concerns compromising the prof itability of the mine. Over the past few decades,
numerous empirical tools have been developed to
dimension open stope in connection with its stability,
using the stability graph method. However, one of the
principal limitations of the stability graph method is to
objectively determine the boundary of the stability
zones, and gain a clear probabilistic interpretation of
the graph. To overcome this issue, this paper aims to
explore the feasibility of artificial neural network
(ANN) based classifiers for the design of open stopes.
A stope stability database was compiled and included
the stope dimensions, rock mass properties, and the
stope stability conditions. The main parameters
included the modified stability number (N’), and the
stope stability conditions (stable, unstable, and failed)